Chanel Perfection Lumiere

I’ve been wearing Chanel Perfection Lumiere ($55) for the past few days, and wanted to post some initial thoughts:

Incredible shade range. Swatches and the ingredient list are here, with some comparison swatches here.

I was matched to Beige Rose 32 (bottle pictured above), although I normally consider myself to be warm and very fair. Typically, I wear Chanel foundations in Intensity 1.0 and go for the warmer shades in the line (Cameo, Ivoire). I was surprised to find that Beige Rose 32 is a pretty good match. It’s more neutral than cool on me. I’ve also purchased some colors from the Beige (warmer) line, particularly to use after my summer color fades so I’m curious to see how those will work.

The foundation starts out very matte, and then settled into a matte-satin after about 30 minutes once it warmed to my skin. I like the finish, it looks natural and like “real skin.” In my opinion, it’s appropriate for both men and women (if you’ve got an HD TV, you may have noticed more men wearing foundation than in prior years, so I thought I’d put that one out there).

On my combination skin, it remains stable the rest of the day. The “glow” that I usually get mid-afternoon on my forehead is far less apparent than usual.

Some sales associates have told me that this is not designed for dry or aging skin. I think they mean that, unlike Pro Lumiere, this foundation does not give a “glowy” finish. Having said that, it does well on the dryer parts of my face without emphasizing anything. You would need to add glow (by adding a glowy finishing powder or fluid) if that is the look that you are going for.

This is a medium coverage foundation that can be applied lightly with a brush for sheer coverage, or layered for heavier coverage. It layers well without caking.

Perfection Lumiere’s coverage is higher than Vitalumiere Aqua and the discontinued Tient Innocence fluid, and roughly the same as Pro Lumiere, Lift Lumiere and Vitalumiere (fluid). It is not as intense (or as glowy) as the Tient Innocence creme compact.

Highly transfer-resistant. I love a good white blouse and use an iPhone close to my face–no problems so far.

No breakouts or clogging after three days of wear.

The feel is very light. I cannot feel the foundation once applied.

There is a scent when first applied–it’s a touch of perfume and I can detect alcohol. It fades after several minutes, but it is detectable when first applied.

A few more notes–right now, I’m have a good skin moment. I’ve been slowly using most of the items recommended by Colbert MD at this post, including his skin care line (reviews to follow), and its working. So far, I’ve worn Perfection Lumiere without a primer, and with Le Blanc de Chanel primer and had good results both times. Typically, foundations do not oxidize on me (I do not consider the color shift that happens within the first 1/2 hour of the application of Perfection Lumiere to be oxidation, because it is absolutely stable on me the rest of the day). Overall, I like the finish, texture and coverage of Perfection Lumiere. The coverage and finish are a good everyday finish for the office or whenever I want to look polished. For me, another Chanel foundation success.

Lovely readers, after thinking about Chanel Perfection Lumiere Foundation($55) (full swatches are here), I was curious about some color comparisons. I thought I’d create a little sketchbook with the pictures to share.

First, I wanted to check Chanel’s Perfection Lumiere against my other foundation shades. Here is a comparison of:

Chanel Vitalumiere Fluid 20 Clair/Cameo

Chanel Perfection Lumiere B10

Chanel Perfection Lumiere B20

Chanel Perfection Lumiere B30

Chanel Tient Innocence Fluid in 20 Clair/Cameo (discontinued)

Chanel Vitalumiere Aqua B10

Chanel Vitalumiere Aqua B20

Chanel Lift Lumiere 15 Ivoire

Chanel Pro Lumiere 20 Claire Cameo

You’ll notice considerable variation among these. In shade with flash:

In sun with flash:

This one compares the Perfection Lumiere Beige Rose 32 both wet and dry. I want to emphasize that a quick arm swatches must dry down. On the left is a freshly applied swatch of Perfection Lumiere BR 32 that has not dried at all. On the far right is the same foundation that has dried down for a good 20 minutes, maybe longer–what a difference in color that dry down makes. In the center is a swatch of Vitalumiere Aqua in Beige Rose 30, which is darker and different tonally.

Finally, I wanted to compare a medium skin tone color across all of the different color tones. Here are swatches of Beige Rose’s deepest shade, Perfection Lumiere in Beige Rose 52. Also, there is Perfection Lumiere in Beige 60, Perfection Lumiere in Beige Ambre 64 and Ambre 94:

It’s so interesting to me that numerically, the first three shades toward the left of this picture are all near 60. But the undertones are so very, very different. Beige Ambre is so warm, it’s really an amber in the true sense of the word. Even the “Beige Rose” does not seem very pink to me. The shade range in this release is certainly enormous for Chanel. Even if you don’t find your perfect match, it may be that you get much closer than with any previous Chanel release. It’s certainly good to see a very high end luxury line take notice of the wide range of color shades of women. This is available with free ship online at Nordstrom.com.

Chanel has just released a new foundation, Perfection Lumiere ($55), which I’m currently testing. In the meantime, I thought it useful to post swatches of nearly all of the shades for my readers. Just a quick note–although Chanel’s Pro Lumiere has been discontinued at the same time that Perfection Lumiere has been released, they are not similar. Although the names echo each other, the finish of Perfection Lumiere is far more matte, and much less “glowy” than Pro Lumiere. I’ll report more on the formula, wear time and finish after more testing.

The foundation comes in a glass pump bottle:

Ingredient list (click to enlarge):

As you can see, there is some sunscreen (titanium dioxide/ SPF 10) in the product.

The biggest change that is immediately noticeable is the large shade range. Perfection Lumiere includes twenty (20) shades (19 are swatched here), which is both unprecedented and welcome from Chanel. I’m so pleased to see very light to dark shades.

The shades are grouped according to undertone. As you will see, some of the darker shades have incorporated reds and blues, and lighter shades have a wide range of available undertones. Like other recent Chanel foundation releases, if possible trybefore you buy. It takes at least five (5) minutes (or longer) before the shade will “settle” into its true color on your skin. Also, you will notice the texture shifts during this time. These swatches were taken with at least 15 minutes of dry time each.

I’ve only tried the foundation once, but my first experience shows that the foundation goes on dry and powdery for the first few minutes. After 1/2 hour, the foundation looked much more natural, less matte and more like real skin. Normally I wear a warm-toned Chanel Cameo/Ivoire (MAC NC15 leaning a bit toward NC20 rather than lighter).

The Beige shades are light to medium in tone:

The Beige Rose Shades are light to medium in tone. These shades are very slightly pinker than the Beige shades:

Here is a comparison of Beige 20 and Beige 22 so that you can see the undertone difference:

Beige Ambre (which translates to “Amber Beige”), which are very warm and run in the medium skin tone range:

The Ambre shades (except for Ambre 114, which was not yet in stock):

Many thanks to the wonderful associates at Nordstrom Beauty, who filled little tiny sample jars so that we could have this as a reference. I always get great service there. More comparison swatches are posted here on Cafe Makeup.

Please do not reproduce or hotlink these images. Taking content and bandwidth isn’t pretty.

Chanel used a very understated form of elegance for yesterday’s Cruise 2011/12 show in Antibes. The clothes were light, although less revealing than Chanel has shown in past cruisewear seasons. The outdoor runway had guests seated at tables covered with white umbrellas:

I love this series of white, floaty clothing:

According to this feature on Style.com, Chanel’s resident makeup genius Peter Philips stated, “The focus is on the easiness of the look,” that is, “great skin, a touch of shadow on the eyes, and a hint of blush on the cheeks.”

Philips used Chanel’s new-for-Fall Perfection Lumière foundation. Cheeks were given a little boost with a dusting of Chanel’s Joues Contraste blush in Espiègle (released for Spring 2011 and reviewed here). Eyes were lined in Stylo Yeaux waterproof eye liner in Ébène, a dark asphalt (reviewed here). Lashes were done with Chanel Inimitable waterproof Mascara in Noir.

Eyes featured a new four eyeshadow compact called Prelude, which according to Philips is “literally a palette of shadow shades.”

Lips and nails were left nude. So refreshing and clean for a summer look. The emphasis is on the accessory, not the nail. Do we die for this bracelet?

A clean nail with just a sweep of gloss…

A few more pictures, including some intriguing sunglasses:

Twinkle, twinkle, she’s a star. You can see the bare lips clearly here–she looks fabulous, yes?